embrace the new that lies ahead

Opening Prayer: Thank you, Lord Jesus, for the new year that lies ahead.  You have much you want to do both in and through us, so help us to be open and receptive to whatever that may be—your work and your word and your will. 

Scripture: Isaiah 42:8-9

Journal: How is God asking you to embrace the new year?  How is that requiring you to let go of the old?

Reflection: You can’t embrace the new, without letting go of the old.  Will you?

Pray

Closing Prayer: Lord Jesus, give me the courage and the strength and the grace to let go of the old, so that I might be able to be receptive to the new.

god alone

Opening Prayer: “Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him.  He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.” (Psalm 62:5-6)

Scripture: Psalm 62:5-6

Journal: What is your sense of well-being dependent upon?  What does that tell you about your life and your faith?  What would it look like for you to put your hope in God alone?

Reflection: “Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him.  He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.” (Psalm 62:5-6)

Until my sense of well-being depends on God alone, I will always be at the mercy of mood, whim, and circumstance.  He alone is my rock and fortress.  He alone will allow my soul to find rest and peace.  He alone is my hope.  If my hope is in anyone or anything else, I am in for a rocky ride. 

“Trust in him, O people, pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.” (Psalm 62:8)

Pray

Closing Prayer: “Trust in him, O people, pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.” (Psalm 62:8)

 

 

how can i be sure of this

Opening Prayer: Forgive us, O Lord, when we doubt the goodness of your heart and the power of your love.  Give us confidence that you do, indeed, hear our prayers and are committed to giving us the deepest desires of our hearts—yourself.

Scripture: Luke 1:5-25

Journal: What is your prayer these days?  How are you asking him to answer it?  Where are you asking, “How can I be sure of this?”

Reflection: “How can I be sure of this?” (Luke 1:18) It’s a simple enough question, I suppose.  And not terribly out of line, at least on the surface, given the circumstances. Except when you consider that the being standing before Zechariah was actually and angel, who had just told him that “your prayer has been heard.”  It certainly echoes the sentiments of a man who would come before Jesus years later: “Lord, I believe.  Help me overcome my unbelief.” (Mark 9:24)

What caused Zechariah to doubt?  Was it that the miracle seemed too hard to perform, given his age, or that he didn’t really believe God loved him enough to perform it?  In other words, did Zechariah have a hard time believing that God could answer his prayer, or that God would answer his prayer?

Julian of Norwich once wrote: “For some of us believe that God is all power and able to do all, and that he is all wisdom and knows how to do all.  But that he is all love and will do all, there we stop.  This ignorance is that which most hinders God’s lovers.”

So, what is it for you?  What makes it hard to believe that God wants to answer your prayers?  What makes it hard for you to believe that he wants to turn your mess into a miracle?  Do you believe he can?  Do you believe he will?  Just pay careful attention, because sometimes the miracle he is performing is not the exact one we are asking him for.  Sometimes he is doing a bigger, deeper work.

Pray

Closing Prayer: “Lord, I believe.  Help me overcome my unbelief.”

 

low

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, the way you chose to enter this world tells us so much about who you are, and about who you aren’t.  Help us to have the courage and the strength and the grace to see your example and to follow it. 

Scripture: Luke 2:7

Journal: How did Jesus enter this world?  Why?  What does that say to you?  How does it call you to be more like him?

Reflection: “And she gave birth to her firstborn, a son.  She wrapped him in cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them at the inn.” (Luke 2:7)

Talk about humble beginnings!  The Creator of the universe, God in the flesh, came into the world as a newborn baby, was wrapped in cloths, and was laid in a manger.  All because there was no room for him in the inn!  Are you kidding me?  How much lower can you get?  And yet, this is how God chose to enter his creation. 

It certainly tells us something about the character of our God.  And it certainly sets an example for those of us who follow.  The very birth of Jesus invites us to the low places.  It invites us to enter the world with a hush rather than a flash.  It invites us to make our home among the low rather than the high. 

The temptation to try and make a place for ourselves in this world is so strong, and yet Jesus did the very opposite.  And he invites us to join him.  Which means that whenever we find that there is no room for us, we are most likely following in his footsteps.  Rejoice and be glad!   

Pray

Closing Prayer: Lord Jesus, give me the courage to follow you, no matter how low it may lead.

my newest book

 

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stay in the struggle

Opening Prayer: Give me the courage and the strength and the grace to wrestle with you, O Lord, whatever that may look like.  For it is only through the wrestling that the blessing arrives.

Scripture: Genesis 32:1-31

Journal: Where and how are you wrestling with God these days?  What is that struggle accomplishing in you?  Will you stay in the struggle long enough to receive the blessing it holds?

Reflection: “But Jacob replied, ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me.’” (Genesis 32:26)

You’ve got to admire Jacob’s tenacity.  While most of us would probably have been saying, “Let me go, this is exhausting, painful, and incredibly uncomfortable,” Jacob was saying, “I will not let you go until you bless me."  The truth is that most of us probably do not stay in the struggle long enough to get the blessing.  We tap out.  But Jacob was determined.  He knew this wrestling would eventually bring a blessing, so he stayed in it.  And although he left with a limp, he also left with a new name.  From that moment on, Jacob’s life would be forever changed.

Pray

Closing Prayer: “Enable me to stay in the struggle until the blessing arrives.  I will allow myself to be vulnerable.  That very vulnerability is my limp, but it is also my blessing.  O Transforming One, you have wounded me, yet you have not disappointed me.  I am grateful for the blessing of all my new names.  Thank you for your presence in the beautiful struggle of daily life.” (Abide by Macrina Wiederkehr)

the depths of woe

Opening Prayer: Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord!  O Lord, hear my voice!  Let your ears be attentive to my pleas for mercy! (Psalm 130:1-2)

Scripture: Psalm 130:1-8

Journal: When were you last in the depths of woe?  What impact did it have on your life?  How are knowing the depths of our own sin and the knowing the depths of God’s love tied together?  Do you have the courage to ask God to take you to the depths of woe, so that you can know the depths of his unfailing love?

Reflection: In the Scriptures, I normally think of an invitation into the depths of God as a positive and inviting thing.  But what about when he invites us—or ushers us—into the depths of woe?  What about when God leads us—or takes us—to a place of coming face to face with our own sinfulness, brokenness, and desperation?  What about when he invites us not just to take a look at his beauty, but to take a good long look at our own inner ugliness?  That’s a whole different story.  I guess that’s why most of us refuse to go there on our own, we have to be taken there.

Well, God has taken me there recently, and I have to say it is not a place I enjoy being.  To be taken to the depths of woe is to be taken to the depths of your own neediness, brokenness, and insecurity, which is painful, humiliating, and incredibly dark.  It involves wave after wave of sorrow, sadness, and shame, with absolutely nothing you can do about it, except sit in it, cry out for mercy, and wait for God to show up in it.

But you know what I found at the bottom of these depths of woe?  I found Jesus.  I guess that’s why the words of the ancient prayer (Psalm 139:8) remind us that even “if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.”  He was right there with me.  His goodness, his unfailing love, and his full redemption (Psalm 130:7-8) even reach to the bottom of the depths of woe, and beyond.  In fact, it is impossible to know the true depths of the unfailing love of God apart from a journey to the bottom of the depths of woe.  For these depths are meant not only to mark you deeply, but also to change you completely.  Jesus meets us there and makes us more into the people, and the lovers, he dreamt us to be.

So if you are currently in the depths, like me, don’t fight it but embrace it.  God is bigger than your sorrow and your sadness and your pain.  God is even bigger than your sin.  Trust him; he is doing a great work in you.  He wants to show you the depths of your sin, so that he can help you to better understand the enormity and extravagance of his unfailing love, as well as the beauty and power of his full redemption.

Pray

Closing Prayer: “From the depths of woe I raise to Thee the voice of lamentation.  Lord, turn a gracious ear to me and hear my supplication.  If Thou iniquities dost mark, our secret sins and misdeeds dark, O who shall stand before Thee?

To wash away the crimson stain, grace, grace alone, availeth.  Our works, alas! are all in vain;
in much the best life faileth.  No man can glory in thy sight, all must alike confess thy might,
and live alone by mercy.” ~Martin Luther